Combination hanger and hoist assembly



May 6, 1958 w. J. DULLE COMBINATION HANGER AND HOIST ASSEMBLY Filed July 8. 1953 F? TOR/YE COMBINATION HANGER AND HOIST ASSEMBLY William J. Dulle, Kansas City, Mo. Application July 8, 195s, Serial No. 366,832

' 1 Claim. Cl. 248320) This invention relates to a support for articles of merchandise, particularly those normally requiring considerable space for storage and/or display, the. primary object being to include therein means for hanging the merchandise in suspended relationship from an overhead support, together with manually operable apparatus for hoisting the merchandise to and from an'elevated position for storage and/ or display.

It is the most important object of the present invention to provide a combination hanger and hoist assembly that includes a bracket adapted for mounting upon' a wall and/or ceiling and having a hanger supported thereon through the medium of hoist means that includes a train of pulleys or sheaves, and a flexible element such as a chain connected with the hanger whereby the latter, with the merchandise supported thereon, may be raised to and from a supported position sufiiciently high to be out of the way and thereby conservespace which would otherwise be needed for such merchandise.

Other objects include the way in which an inexpensive, lightweight, yet durable assembly is provided and which includes novel means for anchoring one end of the hoisting chain; convenient and easily operated means for releasably locking the chain so as to maintain the hanger and merchandise thereon at pre-selected heights; the way in which the last-mentioned means includes a chainreceiving slot and a pulley specially formed to normally bias the chain to an operative position in the slot; and the manner in which means is provided for housing the surplus length of the chain when the hanger is at the uppermost end of its path of travel.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a combination hanger and hoist assembly made pursuant to the present invention, parts being broken away and in section to reveal details of construction.

Fig. 2 is an upwardly facing, cross-sectional view taken on line 11-11 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a detailed, fragmentary, cross-sectional view taken on line III-HI of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken on line IVIV of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; and

1 ing application Serial No.

2,833,505 Patented M yeilass 2 A 1 294,966, filed June 23, 1952.

Eitherof said holders or anyother type of apparatus tomount articles of merchandise, may be utilized in connection with a hanger broadly designated by the numeral 10, and illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 5 of the drawing.

: The Y-shaped hanger may be provided with a hole l2-for attachment of the merchandise thereto, and receives a sheave 14 through the medium of I a pivot pin 16for. rotation on a horizontal axis normally parallel with the axis of rotation of a pulley 18. Pulley 18 is mounted for rotation on a horizontal axis i in spaced parallelism with the axis of rotation of a' second pulley 20 by means of a pivot pin 22. Pulleys 18 and 20 are rotatably carried by fixtures 24 and 26 respectively, that are in turn rigidly secured to an inclined .5 brace '28 forming a part of a bracket broadly designated by' Fig. 5 is a fragmentary, detailed, cross-sectional view taken on line VV of Fig. 1.

Many types of articles of merchandise requiring storage or positioning for display to potential purchasers are extremely bulky and the storage space so required results in considerable expense to merchandisers. By way of example, the problem is acute in the case of lamp shades wherein it is very difficult to provide storage and at the same time adequately display such merchandise to the purchasing public. One form of support constitutes the subject matter of my copending application, Serial No. 318,405, filed November 3, 1952, now Patent No. 2,702,- 176, this being a continuation-in-part thereof. Reference may be had to my U. S. Letters Patent, No. 2,634,864, of April 14, 1953, illustrating a novel holder for lamp shades, and an improved form thereof is disclosed in my copendthennmeral .30. Bracket 30 has a number of perforated plates 32 and 34 adapted for mounting the bracket 30 on a vertical wall and/or a ceiling.

The fixture24 has a bottom wall 36 provided with a slot 38, terminating at the innermost end thereof in a downwardly pressed dimple 40. A chain 42 composed of a plurality of interconnected balls 44, has one end thereof secured to the fixture 24 by insertion in the slot 38 and having one of the balls 44a thereof seated within dimple 40. The chain 42 extends downwardly from the wall 36 around the sheave 14 and thence upwardly around the pulley 18. The bottom wall 36 is provided with an opening 46 for clearing the stretch of chain 42 extending between pulley 18 and sheave 14. From pulley 18, the chain 42 extends downwardly and rearwardly toward the pulley 20 in parallelism with the brace 28, around pulley 20 and thence downwardly from the latter, through a hole 48 within a cap 50 removably secured to a receptacle 52.

Bottom wall 54 of fixture 26, and one side wall 56 i of the tubular fixture 26, has an opening 58 appreciably larger than the diameter of the balls 44 and terminating in a slot 60 within the bottom Wall 54. slot 60 is adapted to receive the chain between any pair of the balls 44 to relcasably hold the hanger 10 at preselected heights. The receptacle 52 receives the excess length of chain 42 when the hanger 10 is in an elevated position and is releasably connected to the chain 42 by means of a latch 62 swingably mounted on the inner face of cap 50 for movement toward and away from a stop pin 64. depending from the innermost face of cap 50.

Latch 62 is normally disposed between a pair of the balls best in Fig. 3, whereby the chain 42 is biased into the slot 60. In other words, by virtue of the configuration of pulley 20 wherein the face 66 thereof slopes toward flange 68, chain 42 will tend to ride adjacent flange 68 directly above the slot 60, thereby eliminating the tendency of chain 42 to become accidentally displaced from within slot 60.

When it is desired to raise and lower the hanger 10 with merchandise hanging thereon, it is but necessary for the operator to grasp the receptacle 52 and swing the chain 42 out of the slot 60, and when the chain is reinserted into the slot 60, it will hang vertically from the pulley 20. i

The receptacle 52 may be mounted on the chain 42 to normally hang at any desired height merely by removing the cap 50, releasing the latch 62 and re-positioning the same along that stretch of the chain 42 de pending from pulley 20.

The provision of the dimple 40 presents a further safety factor against accidental displacement since the ball 44a will not likely become dislodged from within slot 38 as long as it is seated within the dimple 40[ It is seen that 9,883,505 7 w i r r Having thus "described Lthe invention What is claimed as new and desired to heisecurediby .LettersJBatent is:

In a merchandise supporthaving means for rotatably receiving one of a pair of stretches of a ball chain from which the, merchandisel depends, theimprovement =.of which comprises; a tubular fixture lhavingi a toplwall, a bottom wall, and azpairof' spaced sidevwalls the top wall being' adaptedrtobe secured 10211116 support, there being ajpulley between said sidewalls and carried Jthereby for rotation on a substantially horizontal "axis, said pulley being adapted to receive the other stretch of the ball chain with a part thereof extending through the bottom wa1l,-onefof the; side walls and rsaidbottorn wall being said portion in substantial alignment with the slot, said i portionslopi-ngsinwardly toward the groove and the axis provided with an,opening1:adapted for clearinglsaid part oftheball chain, said openingiterminatingin ai s'lot within thexbottom :wall iadaptedwto receive the chain between a pairrof balls thereof, thewslotbeingunarrowemthanthe diameter of the balls-wherebystovretain the chain when the same is disposed in the slot, said pulley having a flange, a substantially frusto-conical portion, and-ran annular; chain-receiving groove between .the tlange -and of rotation of the pulley for biasing the ball chain into the groove and therefore into the slot whereby the chain 7 is releasably retained therein to hold the merchandise in predetermined positions relative to the support.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED {STATES PATENTS Spencer Jan. 18, 1881 504,082 Hebendahl Aug. 29, 1893 522,160 Hancock June 26, 1894 1,450,176 Hopkins Apr. 3, 1923 1,633,344 Moran June 21, 1927 2,036,172 Gagnon Mar. 31, 1936 2,508,759 Jones May 23, 1950 2,523,440 McEnary Sept. 26,1950

FOREIGN PATENTS 4,992 "Great Britain Apr. 22, 1885 

